U.S.-Based Internet Traffic Was Redirected To China, Researchers Say

Researchers this week revealed that a major portion of the world’s Internet traffic was redirected to China’s primary telecommunications carrier for a period of about 20 minutes earlier this year.

“At 15:54 GMT on April 8, 2010, McAfee detected a routing announcement from China’s state-controlled telecommunications company, China Telecom, which advertised 15 percent of the world’s Internet routes,” said researchers at security company McAfee in a today’s blog. For at least the next 18 minutes — up until China Telecom withdrew the announcement — a significant portion of the world’s Internet traffic was redirected through China to reach its final destination.”